Dogs or Bears - Modern Value Systems

I usually depend on old newspapers for historical source material, but today I'm going with a 200 year old diary excerpt from Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis and Clark fame.

June 28, 1805 "The white bear have become so troublesome to us that I do not think it prudent to send one man alone on an errand of any kind. they come close around our camp every night by have never yet ventured to attack us and our dog gives us timely notice of their visits, he keeps constantly patrolling all night. I have made the men sleep with their arms by them as usual for fear of accidents." Lewis

Science tells us that Dogs and Bears evolved from a common ancestor, creatively named the "dogbear." I grew up with dogs running around the neighborhood, and never saw a live bear outside a zoo until one came wondering up my residential street a couple years ago with two cubs in tow. I've encountered bear in town twice since, once walking to the supermarket when I looked up and saw a large brown bear loping towards me from about 100 ft away, and once walking in the evening when a mother bear with three cubs wandered across the main drag, with a tardy cub causing a driver to lock up the brakes.

I don't have anything against bear, though one coming at me gave me a scare. What bothers me is the judgment made by society around here that wandering bear are good but dogs off leash are bad. Civilized man (and dogs) made our choice thousands of years ago. We're on one side, and the bear are on the other side. The earthy-crunchy types in the 300 year old Massachusetts town I live in have decided that bear are somehow more valuable than dogs (amongst a raft of other revisions to traditional value systems) and don't see the harm of bear wandering freely through town at night. I figure they'll change their minds when some cute kid tries to pick up a bear cub that's eating out of the garbage and the mother bear breaks the kid's skull.

Bear and people aren't meant to share the same space. Yes, we can manage it for a short while, when the number of bear is low and the local wildlife cops can tranquilize the young males and move them somewhere where hunters are still active, but sooner or later as the bear population continues to grow, it's going to be us or them. I'm in favor of us, or at least, me, and a few dogs running around off leash and barking at bear would be a good start.